Victor Bodden guide/driver recommendations? (MERGED THREADS)

[curleelocks]

I waited to long to request Tex and he is already booked for our day in Roatan. Who is next on the list as a highly recommended tour guide?

I have seen the names Ali, Lionel, Chanin but none as consistently as Tex. What about Victor himself?

[lovevacadays]

When we toured with Tex he mentioned that it was him and Ali who got the most requests. You might try for Ali.

[canuckgal33]

We had Ronald....he was very good. Funny and super knowledgeable. It was a great tour!

[Irishlinny]

We had Martie and loved him! He was great!

[krismas_tina]

we had channin last july. he's young, energetic, and passionate about his island. i would recommend channin. in fact, we still keep in touch with him and consider him a friend!

[MagnoliaFly]

we had channin last july. he's young, energetic, and passionate about his island. i would recommend channin. in fact, we still keep in touch with him and consider him a friend!

 

I just put in a request to do a tour with him! I hope he is available. We are so thrilled to do a Bodden tour this time as last time we went with an excursion through Carnival and we didn't have as much fun as our friends did that did a Bodden tour.

[MDSue]

I'm not sure if Hanno is back. I read a few months ago that he was working in the US for a few months. We toured with him twice and he does a great job. We liked him so much the first time, that we requested him again on our second visit. I know the Victor work diligently to provide is customers with a great day. If you don't get one of the well-known guides, I'm confident he we choose a great person for you.

[curleelocks]

I know the Victor work diligently to provide is customers with a great day. If you don't get one of the well-known guides, I'm confident he we choose a great person for you.

It appears as if all the more popular guides from here are already accounted for. He said not to worry and he will make sure we have a great tour. Honestly, if not for this forum I never would have thought to request someone specific. I am sure it will be a great day no matter who he gives us.

[AryMay]

We toured with Victor back in 2004 when his business was just getting off the ground...it was just my friend and I and Victor spent the whole day with us showing us the island. This past summer we returned (with adult kids) and this time Victor's brother, Francisco, was our guide!

 

Victor had gone to the mainland to get supplies for the house he is building and Francisco didn't think he would be back until the following day due to transportation strikes in the country of Honduras. What a surprise to have Victor look for us just to say hello when we visited the monkeys at his home! (He had managed to get home sooner than expected.) You won't find a nicer guy than Victor anywhere! (And that goes for Francisco as well!)

 

There are a lot of photos from our day in Roatan in the Legend Review link in my signature.

Edited December 31, 2010 by AryMay

[jagoffee]

We toured with Victor back in 2004 when his business was just getting off the ground...it was just my friend and I and Victor spent the whole day with us showing us the island. This past summer we returned (with adult kids) and this time Victor's brother, Francisco, was our guide!

 

Victor had gone to the mainland to get supplies for the house he is building and Francisco didn't think he would be back until the following day due to transportation strikes in the country of Honduras. What a surprise to have Victor look for us just to say hello when we visited the monkeys at his home! (He had managed to get home sooner than expected.) You won't find a nicer guy than Victor anywhere! (And that goes for Francisco as well!)

 

There are a lot of photos from our day in Roatan in the Legend Review link in my signature.

 

AryMay, great review and pictures. I really enjoyed it. I am considering using them for a tour on Roatan in Feb. for a general tour of the island, a visit to the monkeys, and then the rest of the time at a resort with a pool on the beach. Based on the places that you visited would you say that the Infinity Bay Resort might be the best options. I know that they sell a day pass. Or would you suggest one of the other places? Thanks.

[AryMay]

AryMay, great review and pictures. I really enjoyed it. I am considering using them for a tour on Roatan in Feb. for a general tour of the island, a visit to the monkeys, and then the rest of the time at a resort with a pool on the beach. Based on the places that you visited would you say that the Infinity Bay Resort might be the best options. I know that they sell a day pass. Or would you suggest one of the other places? Thanks.

 

I'm not going to be much help here. Our original plans were to spend part of the afternoon at the beach, but the kids all vetoed the idea because they wanted to see more of the island. Our stop at Infinity Bay was just long enough to put our feet in the water but from what I saw it was nice.

 

You might want to ask others on this board or better yet...just email Victor. He would be able to give you some good suggestions.

[jagoffee]

I'm not going to be much help here. Our original plans were to spend part of the afternoon at the beach, but the kids all vetoed the idea because they wanted to see more of the island. Our stop at Infinity Bay was just long enough to put our feet in the water but from what I saw it was nice.

 

You might want to ask others on this board or better yet...just email Victor. He would be able to give you some good suggestions.

 

Thank you for your quick reply.

[sassy1ja]

Can you reccomend your driver if you had one of the 14 person vans? We have at least 10 of us in our group and wasn't able to get Tex again as he drives the smaller vans.

[sherrix2]

I've seen alot of posts with people saying the like certain tour guides from his company...which did u like and why?

thank you!!

[ondebyou]

I've seen alot of posts with people saying the like certain tour guides from his company...which did u like and why?

thank you!!

 

We had Lionel. He was very informative on anything we had asked about and anytime he was driving us to our next location, he would give us a rundown on lots about the island,the people, the culture, etc. Also, from reading some of those posts by others, our guy, Lionel, did not deviate from our itinerary for the day at all..( i.e.; 1.go pick up cell phone from repair store out of the way, 2. go to an out of the way apartment to meet girlfriend.). We felt very comfortable with him the entire time, and as it turned out, our day was the best of the three ports and he had us safely and timely, back to the Mohogany Bay Taxi terminal, in plenty of time for a little shop browsing before boarding the ship. I had NO problem giving him an extra tip before he left, as did eveyone in the group.

[anh_81]

We were in Roatan last Friday, March 21 and booked a tour with Victor's company based on reviews from this website. I'm so glad we did as Roatan ended up being the highlight of our trip. We had originally asked for Tex based on his positive reviews from previous posts. When we got off the boat Friday morning it was raining and a bit chilly so when we got to Victor's booth we really weren't picky about our driver we just wanted out of the weather. Lanny ended up being our guide and I cannot say enough positive things about him. He was absolutely wonderful. At first he drove us around and told us about the island, the different areas and the history. We stopped and saw the shipwrecks (which I thought were cool, especially after hearing the stories about them). We then went to the Iguana farm. Unfortunately (for the kids) the iguanas were all up in the trees due to the weather because when it's sunny out they're aparently everywhere and you can play with them and feed them. After that it was off to see the monkeys at Victor's. Definitely the highlight of the cruise for the kids. They were all over us...but be careful with the white faced monkey as it will bite (but not hard). Lanny then showed us where the "foreigners" (Americans) are building homes on the island and then to West End. The water was too rough for swimming, so we just did some shopping. There is a very cool art gallery across from The Purple Turtle and the shop owner is very friendly...highly recommend stopping in.

After the shopping we asked Lanny to take us to a good lunch spot. He drove us over to West Bay Resort and we sat on the deck and had a great lunch (which we asked Lanny to join us for). We spent the rest of our time chatting with Lanny about the culture which was probably the highlight of the trip for my DH and me. After that it was back to port for some quick shopping and we were off, sadly.

Roatan was definitely the highlight of our trip which was surprising for us all as we were a little concerned we wouldn't enjoy it.

 

 

So happy to see a good review for Lanny, as he will be our guide in a couple weeks!

Edited July 18, 2011 by anh_81

[lovevacadays]

So happy to see a good review for Lanny, as he will be our guide in a couple weeks!

 

I hope you have as wonderful a time in Roatan as we did back in Nov 09. I'm so ready to go back to Roatan but my next two booked cruised don't include it. Sounds like I need a land vacation there.

 

Take in the beauty of this island and it's people. Does it have poverty and things we don't see in our country - yes. However, it is an amazing place to see.

[CBCGirl]

Unfortunatley Tex is already booked for the date I'm going to be in Roatan :(, but Victor sent me a list of some of his other popular tour guides that are avalible the date that I will be there, but I haven't heard of any of them, so which one of the following guides would you recommend? On the tour it will be just me and my mom.

 

The guides are: Lani, Larson, Wordy, Laura, Anthony an Keyla

[texancruzer]

Don't see him on the list - but we had Big Al on our recent one week visit to Roatan. Was a last minute booking and we had trouble getting in touch with Victor via phone (seems he was in Florida :roll eyes:) so I sent an email. We then left our condo and went on about our day. That afternoon we were sitting at the Palapa bar at Infinity Bay (thats where we were staying) and he walked up to us and said "are you the Henry's ?) So he took the time and trouble to come all the way out to us which I thought was pretty neat. We did a whole day tour (we wanted to see the real Roatan) and he was great.

 

I think you will find all of his guides are pretty good. Just be sure and communicate what you are looking for ...... most reviews here that are less than glowing are from the fact that the communication was not very good on the part of the visitor.......

[Biza]

We were just there on Thursday and had Kenny for our guide, he was really great! We booked the Sun and Fun tour which, for only $25 per person, is not supposed to be customizable. We were with one other family. The other woman on the tour had two things she was looking for: vanilla and a mahogany salad bowl. We were fine with adding some shopping stops (and had the time), so this worked out great. Kenny stopped at two different grocery stores during our tour of the island to find the vanilla his mom buys, supposedly the best, for $1 and some change instead of the $5 bottles the tourist stands were selling. After playing with the monkeys and going to the beach, he took us to the shopping center near the Royal Caribbean port, which is not currently in use, to get an amazing deal on mahogany salad bowls ($40 for the large bowl, 6 small bowls, and salad servers, the same thing was $100 in the Carnival port area). Kenny went out of his way to make sure we all had an amazing day and taught us a lot about the island and life there. He also showed us the best place to snorkel and sat with our stuff so nothing would happen to it while we were in the water. I can't say enough good things about him!

[gail811]

Not on the list, but someone I request is Cardi. I have used him twice; the first time was a group of 7 women ranging in age from 9 to 76! He was so patient and such a gentleman that I requested him when we returned a year later on our sons wedding cruise!

 

 

[Cruisegirl6]

Why can't we be told who our guide is we were told we find out when we arrive at our meeting place, I not care for this something not right maybe he not have a driver and hoping somebody won't show up for us to have one.

[texancruzer]

Why can't we be told who our guide is we were told we find out when we arrive at our meeting place, I not care for this something not right maybe he not have a driver and hoping somebody won't show up for us to have one.

 

I can guarantee you that tour companies who become successful, as Victor has done, do not hope that somebody doesn't show up so he will have enough drivers.

 

If he booked you, you will have a driver. When there are multiple ships in port, sometimes 8000 or more tourists descend on a small island. The logistics of figuring out who will be with whom MONTHS IN ADVANCE is not always possible. When booking private tours in Europe you will not know ahead who your driver will be ...... same goes for most companies. Relax, book your tour and enjoy your time on Roatan.

 

Just as a helpful tip: Try using periods to end a sentence :)

[VikkiGarcia]

We were off the ship pretty quickly and saw a ton of guides waiting with Bodden. I would not be too worried that he would leave anyone empty handed. We had not requested anyone specifically. A guide approached us as we walked down the hill and started a conversation with my son. He seemed like a real "go-getter". When we approached the "leader" with the clip board with all of the reservations. He asked us if we wanted to stick with the guide who was chatting up my son. I said sure. I would advise to get off as soon as you can to have the biggest pool of guides to pick from. You can quickly spot the one who are enthusiastic and eager.

[Cruisegirl6]

Thanks I won't worry we are the only ship docked that day but the problem its a major holiday over there do you think everything be opened I not sure?

 

VikkiGarcia good advice but we on vacation to relax, we not going to get up early am like most people, rush to eat breakfast, stand on a line that is very long with other people doing the same and waiting for tenders. We will get up leisurely eat breakfast and get off ship around 10:45, we always find its best for us no lines no wait. I would think that all his guides are wonderful haven't heard a bad comment about one, thanks so much. :)